The solidbody guitar is essentially a blank canvas, a quality that often results in some rather bizarre designs, such as the instruments regularly featured here.

Occasionally, however, form and function coalesce to produce an instrument that not only looks cool but also offers enhanced tone benefits. That’s how Minarik describes its new Orchid model, which looks like a delicate flower with its orchid-inspired “petals” and thin “stamen” extensions, which also are designed to function similar to tuning forks.

“When we designed our Inferno model, we discovered that having extended pieces of the wood body hanging in air offered tonal possibilities that other guitars do not have,” Mark Minarik says. “With the Orchid model, we designed different-sized protrusions, combined with trademark tone chambering that allows those wood pieces to act as tuning forks that enhance different frequencies based on their size and location. The design gives the guitar a wider tonal rainbow.”

With its numerous curves, body extensions, neck-through-body design, arched top and what seems like a mile of binding surrounding abalone purfling, the Orchid provides Minarik with more building challenges than the average solidbody.

“The contoured arch top is very difficult to craft toward the stamen and leaves,” he says. “Also, the corner pieces by the upper horns drop below the body line. There are three different levels on this body that blend seamlessly. This example also has an Alice in Wonderland fretboard inlay that is very intricate and spectacular. You really have to look at it up close to appreciate all the detail and work that went into it.”